And Baby Makes Three
by americanstalker
Summary: The Doctor and Rose find a baby outside the TARDIS in Cardiff. What happens next?
1. Chapter 1

_The Doctor and Rose find a baby outside the TARDIS. What happens next?_

The TARDIS landed in Cardiff just below the big sign, near the rift, as always. However, they found something unusual that would change everything.

Just as they stepped out, a baby's cries caused Rose's head to turn to the right. There stood a stroller with a bundle in a blue blanket. The duo walked forward, and upon further inspection, discovered a newborn (less than a month old) baby boy. A small diaper bag hung from the back of the stroller, and pinned to it was a note that read _Please take care of him. Heaven knows I can't._

Rose and the Doctor shared a look, and knew they had to care for him. They brought him inside, and the Doctor began to examine him while Rose took stock of the diaper bag.

"A boy, less than ten days old-"

"How do you know?" Rose asked while she rifled through the bag.

"Regardless of species, genitalia tend to stay the same between humans and Time Lords," the Doctor deadpanned as he put the diaper back on.

Rose rolled her eyes at his remark. "I mean, how old he is? How did you know?"

"His umbilical cord is still attached. It tends to fall off between 10 and 21 days. "

Rose nodded at this. The Doctor then proceeded to weigh and take the baby's length, and document this as well. He examined the baby's eyes and ears, and then decided to listen to the baby's heart and lungs. When he listened to the boy's heart, a furrow in his brow caused Rose concern.

"What's wrong?" Rose asked.

"This baby is half Time Lord. Listen." He motioned her to come over and listen to the baby's heartbeat. Rose set the bag aside and listened. It had two heartbeats. She turned to him with a shocked look.

"I thought you were the last surviving Time Lord," Rose said.

"I did, too. I ran his DNA, and I'm not his biological father. This just gets even more and more bizarre," the Doctor mused. "Not that you're bizarre, of course not. You're just too cute for words," he then said to his son before turning to Rose.

"What do you want to name him?"

"Well, it would be nice if you told me your real name so I could name him after you," she suggested.

"Not happening. He will be scarred for life if you did. He gets a human name, Time Lord or not."

She thought for a moment. "How about David? David Tyler Smith?"

"Sounds fine to me," he said as he handed the baby off to Rose so he could input the information into the "chart" he started for the child. "So where do we stand on supplies?"

"We have four diapers, two bottles of formula, one pacifier, and an onesie, a rag that can be used for burping, a blanket, and a note that said that he was fed at 13:15 today. We should probably get to a shop."

"That might be a good idea. We can also check the wardrobe for clothes," the Doctor said as he stood up. He studied his son's red hair. "How come you get to be ginger and I don't? Oh well, it might be short-lived."

"What do you mean?" Rose asked.

"Babies are sometimes born with red hair, and then their color changes as they get older. We'll see, though. Shall we go?" the Doctor asked, getting up from the captain's seat.

"Sure, let me get the stroller," she told him as she went into the closet in their room.

They went to a nearby shop and bought enough baby essentials to last a couple of weeks; diapers, a couple of outfits, formula, bottles, pacifiers, onesies, and wipes. The Doctor told Rose he still had his old cradle, so they could use it for now; they would buy a proper crib later.

"The clothes look a bit big," Rose commented as they left the store. She sat down on a nearby bench to give David his bottle.

"Children grow like weeds. These will last a while longer. Anyway, we should check the wardrobe to see if we have anything in the way of baby clothes. "

"I think we should talk about who should be David's godparents. I'd like Jack to be his godfather."

"Jack? As in Captain Jack Harkness? Are you mad?"

"What? He's a good man. I think he'd be great with the baby. Let's ask him and see what he thinks," Rose said.

"All right. What about his godmother?" the Doctor asked.

"What do you think about Donna? Do you think she would make a good godmother?" Rose asked as she was about to burp her son. The Doctor offered to take him and put him over his shoulder.

"Sure, she sounds like a good choice. Don't get me wrong, I love Jack like a brother, but him as a godfather?" HHe asked with a shake of the head as he coaxed David to burp. Once this was accomplished, he placed him back in the stroller and wrapped the blanket around him tightly to keep him warm. With that, they were off to Torchwood to pay a visit to their friend.

_Author's Note: I picked the name David for the baby partially for obvious reasons, but also because a) I like the name, and b) after my godfather. It's also kind of sentimental when you think about it (it means "Beloved" in Hebrew). I was born with red hair, and then it turned dark brown. About the cradle, if you've seen "A Good Man Goes to War", you'll see that the Doctor brings out his old cradle when he insists that baby Melody is crying because she's tired._


	2. Chapter 2

When they reached Torchwood, they immediately found Jack hard at work in front of a computer, trying to keep Ianto from goofing off too much. The Doctor had to shout to get his attention.

"Jack! Over here!" He waved one arm with the other on the stroller.

Jack told Gwen to make sure that Ianto worked while he went up to greet both his friends with hugs. He then crouched down to look at the red-headed, brown-eyed baby in the stroller.

"Who's this little guy?" He asked.

"That's our son, David Tyler Smith," Rose told him.

"When did you get pregnant? I know it's been a while since I've seen you, but I think I would have remembered if you ever told me you were expecting," Jack replied, a little surprised.

"No, we found him outside the TARDIS. Someone left him outside there with a note that asked us to take care of him. What's even more unusual is that the baby is part Time Lord,"

"But that's not why you're here, is it?" the head of Torchwood looked up at friends and asked while their son gripped Jack's index finger.

"No, it's because we'd like to know if you'd like to be David's godfather," the Doctor explained.

"Sure, I'd be honored," he said with a smile before asking if he could hold his godson.

"Yeah, be careful," Rose told him as she bent forward to undo the straps holding David in the stroller. Jack held the now-sleeping baby, smiled at him, and kissed his forehead.

"He's a cute little guy. Something tells me he's going to take after his old man, and I'm talking about the man standing in front of me," Jack told the new parents, which got them both to smile.

Ianto and Gwen then walked over to see the baby. They both smiled as they gazed down at the small bundle of joy wrapped in the blue blanket.

"This is the Doctor and Rose's baby, and my godson, David," he introduced the baby to his team. They smiled at the sleeping child, talked about how cute he was, and asked how old he was.

"How old is he?" Jack asked the new parents.

"A newborn. Ten days at the most," the Doctor explained, "I know, it's not every day that you find a baby in a stroller on a sidewalk in Cardiff."

"Even more so outside of a space ship," Rose added, "Anyway, we should get going, and tell Donna that she's the godmother-"

"Oh, I'd be more than happy to tell her," Jack told her, handing the baby back, "she's going to be thrilled."

"-and my mum that she's a grandmother. She's going to go nuts."

"Yeah, tell your mum," the Doctor groaned as he started to push the stroller. They said their goodbyes to everyone at Torchwood, and made their way to the TARDIS, where the Doctor dreaded the trip to Powell Estates.

The Doctor and Rose took a deep breath as they opened the door to Jackie's flat. Jackie immediately hugged and kissed everyone and stopped when she saw the baby in the stroller.

"Who is this?" She immediately asked when she saw David and smiled big.

"Well, that's what we wanted to talk to you about. Let's sit down and talk," Rose said as they went into the living room. The Doctor sat nervously next to Rose as she took David out of the stroller and Jackie sat in the easy chair.

"Just so you know, the baby is part Time Lord, but not our biological son," the Doctor told her, attempting to avoid a slap.

"Your son? What do you mean, your son? He's your child now?" She asked, surprised.

"For all intents and purposes, yes, he is our child. Someone left a note on him asking us to take care of him, and that they couldn't. When we found out he was part Time Lord, we kind of figured out why."

"So how did you find him? Did he just show up outside the TARDIS?" Jackie asked.

"Actually, yes, that's exactly how it happened while we were in Cardiff. I saw him, and brought him inside. The Doctor looked him over, we got a few things for him, and we're here, introducing him to you," Rose explained.

"What's his name?" the new grandmother asked.

"David Tyler Smith," the Doctor told her, offering the baby. Jackie gladly accepted the blue blanket-wrapped child and smiled.

"He's an adorable little guy. My beautiful little grandson," she said, kissing his forehead and rocking him a little. "How old is he?"

"Newborn, less than ten days, we think," Rose told her.

Just then, they heard a knock on the door. It was Donna, the baby's godmother. She had a bag of clothes and a couple of toys for David. There were plenty of sleepers (including a West Totthenham outfit), a multitude of onesies, a few pacifiers, stuffed animals, teething toys, and a rattle.

"Thank you so much," Rose said with surprise.

"Of course. I want to make sure my godson has a few things," she said. Donna then took the baby in her arms and grinned broadly.

"Oh, he's a little ginger. Jack didn't tell me that," she mentioned.

"Don't remind me," the Doctor mumbled bitterly. This got everyone else in the room to laugh. A few minutes later, Donna checked her watched and said that she should probably leave and was ready to hand David back.

"All right," the Doctor sighed, "I'll see you later. Thank you so much for everything," he said, taking the baby and hugging her. Rose hugged her as well, and told Jackie that it was nice to finally meet her.

The Doctor said he was going to feed and change the baby before dinner. Jackie took this as a chance to talk to him about what he planned to do about traveling and caring for the baby.

"I want to know if you plan to carry on travelling or if you plan to "go domestic", as you call it," Jackie asked.

The Doctor sighed as he burped David and laid him on Rose's bed to change his diaper. "I honestly don't know. Rose and I are going to talk about this in the morning. I assure you that whatever we do will be in David's best interests."

"It better be. This is my grandchild we're talking about," Jackie warned him, giving him a look that said that if they didn't, he'll be slapped into the 52nd century.

The Doctor nodded nervously as he changed his son's diaper. Once he fastened the boy's onesie and blue outfit and lifted him up, the Doctor discarded the soiled diaper in the bathroom waste basket and put the wipes back in the diaper bag. He then laid David on the couch.

The three adults enjoyed a dinner of shepherd's pie and chatted about what had been going on since they had last seen each other. Every so often, he and Rose would look over to the baby looking up at the ceiling. They were both amazed at how many lives he had changed in such a short period of time. They wondered how many more and how much he would continue to in the years to come.

Once they got back to the TARDIS, they set up a little nursery with the cradle and a makeshift changing table/dresser from a desk the Doctor almost never used. They put the new clothes and a few diapers in the drawers and the container of wipes on the table. The walls were plain white for the time being, but they hung some Winnie the Pooh decorations that Jackie still had from when Rose was a baby. The Doctor and Rose gave him a sponge bath (Jackie and the Doctor told her not to give him a real bath until his umbilical cord fell off), fed, and changed David one last time before putting him to bed.


End file.
